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UCLA alumnus Tom Nunan said he remembers his film professor Peter Guber inspiring students by inviting leaders of the entertainment industry to share their stories in class.
For the past 20 years, Nunan has done the same in his own film class, hosting and interviewing professional guests in his lectures to ask about their work on hit television shows.
This quarter, Nunan is teaching graduate film course 188A in Haines 39, which focuses on the development stage of TV shows and is open to the public. Using HBO as his lens, Nunan will bring executives, talent and directors from hit shows on HBO to speak, including “Girls,” “Game of Thrones” and “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Beyond his work in education, Nunan’s accomplishments in the entertainment industry include his company, Bull’s Eye Entertainment, winning an Academy Award for producing the 2004 film “Crash.” He has held executive positions at ABC and FOX before later becoming president of NBC Studios and the United Paramount Network – now known as The CW. He is now the owner and co-founder of Bull’s Eye Entertainment.
The Daily Bruin’s Lindsay Weinberg spoke with Nunan about bringing actor Lisa Kudrow to speak in his film class, his campaign to produce “The Terminator” and his advice to Hollywood hopefuls.
Daily Bruin: This quarter your guests in class include Lisa Kudrow and Lena Dunham. How were you able to schedule speakers like these to come?
Tom Nunan: The first thing I do is reach out to the president of any network that I’m profiling and make sure that that entertainment president is supportive and interested in our class. And after that, the network president and his or her staff help me in reaching out to the various talent who might also be interested in supporting UCLA’s theater, film and television program.
DB: How do you decide which guests to invite to your class?
TN: Well this quarter I’m doing a deep dive, if you will, of HBO. So I limited the VIPs for the class I’m teaching this quarter to creators, show runners, executives and actors who appear on HBO shows.
DB: What is the focus of your discussions with them?
TN: Generally speaking, I like to cover three major areas when I have a VIP come in. How and where did you get started? What is your secret to enduring success? And how do you inspire other newcomers?
DB: Can you briefly describe how you got involved in the entertainment industry after graduating from UCLA?
TN: When I was at the film school at UCLA, the three paths that we took were writing, directing or, possibly if you were in the theater program, acting. I wasn’t interested at the time in any of those as a career but I knew that there were other jobs in entertainment. So I started to pursue internships outside of UCLA. Those internship experiences – I did six internships while I was in school – led me to focus on becoming an executive.
DB: What were some of the internships that you had?
TN: The internship that was the game changer for me was being a script reader at HBO in its early days of financing cable acquisitions. I was fortunate enough to read the script for “The Terminator” and was an early champion of that, and that got me a great reputation as somebody with a good eye for material.
DB: I know it can be challenging interviewing people you respect or admire. Have you ever been starstruck either speaking with guests in your class or otherwise in your career?
TN: I’m constantly starstruck. I mean, I’m starstruck by some of my students. I’m always humbled in the face of tremendous talent and I find myself both attracted to it and intimidated by it. But it’s something I deeply want to understand. If I can understand (talent) and share it with others, I feel like I’m living my life’s purpose.
DB: At the end of your class, you ask the guests to impart advice onto your students. What is your advice to students wishing to enter the entertainment industry?
TN: Well because entertainment is perceived as something that “should be fun,” a lot of young folks don’t apply the same degree of curiousness and commitment to their dedication to learning about entertainment as they might a different trade, like, let’s say, becoming a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. But entertainment, in many ways, is even more difficult to grasp than those other fields and certainly much more competitive.
DB: In what ways would you say it’s more difficult?
TN: The depth and breadth of talent that you’re competing against is vast. All of that said, I’m an optimistic teacher and I’m a supportive teacher, and I believe that anybody who wants a career in entertainment can have one. … There’s only one way you’ll fail in entertainment, and that’s if you quit. If you stick with it, eventually it’ll come. It may not come on your terms or on your timeline, but it’ll come if you don’t give up.
Compiled by Lindsay Weinberg, A&E; contributor.
Clarification: Tom Nunan’s company, Bull’s Eye Entertainment, won an Academy Award for producing the film “Crash.